A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the association between perceived occu-pational psychosocial stress at work and the work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD) among employees using video display terminals. The study included 111 female telecommunication employees from three companies at ChungBuk province. Cases of WRMSD were defined using symptom questionnaire and physical examination conducted by rehabilitation specialist. Information on demographics, individual factors, and perceived psychosocial stress, were obtained by self-administered questionnaire. For assessing perceived psychosocial stress, we used variables from 'job strain model' proposed by Karasek. Associations between perceived psychosocial stress and WRMSD were assessed by multiple logistic regression models. Forty nine (44% to the total) subjects met our operational definition for WRMSD. Age, seniority, housing load were not associated with WRMSD. Perceived psychosocial stress was associated with WRMSD [odds ratio=3.28, 95% confidence interval: 1.05-10.19]. This study suggests that perceived occupational psychosocial stress is related to the prevalence of WRMSD.
Chungcheongbuk-do ; Computer Terminals* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Demography ; Female ; Housing ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Physical Examination ; Prevalence ; Questionnaires ; Rehabilitation ; Specialization ; Telecommunications

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of measurements obtained from 3-dimensional computerized tomography and 3-dimensional cephalogram constructed by using the frontal and lateral cephalogram of six human dry skulls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After CT scans and each cephalograms were taken, 3-dimensional coordinates (X, Y, Z) of landmarks were obtained using computer programs. In this study, the accuracy of both methods were determined by means of 14 linear measurements compare with caliper measurements. RESULTS: The standard deviation of landmarks of 3-dimensional CT and 3-dimensional cephalogram were 0.23 mm and 0.30 mm in X axis, 0.27 mm and 0.25 mm in Y axis, and 0.27 mm and 0.31 mm in Z axis. In both methods, the standard deviation were less than 0.5 mm in all landmarks, and the most of landmarks showed less than 1 mm in range. Concerning the accuracy, the mean difference between 3-dimensional CT and manual measurements was 0.33 mm, and 1.13 mm between 3-dimensional cephalogram and manual measurement. The distance between RGo and LGo showed the largest difference (2.23 mm). There were highly significant, and large correlation with manual measurements in both methods (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: It is concluded that closeness of repeated measurements to each skulls reveal the precision of both methods. Computerized tomography and cephalogram for 3-dimensional measurement of maxillofacial structure are equivalent in quality to caliper measurements.
Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Humans ; Skull ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Tuberculosis of the skull bone tuberculosis is a very rare disease. We report a case occurring in a 52 year-old male was referred to us because of headache and painful swelling in the right frontal area. Plain chest x-ray revealed fibrous, streaky, nodular, patchy opacities in the LUL together with pleural effusion. Plain skull x-ray and CT scan demonstrated osteolytic lesion in the right frontal bone; scanning showed hot uptake by the right frontal area, and this corresponding to skll findings revealed by plain film. After frontal craniotomy the involved bone flap and epidural abscess were removed. Pafthologically, typical granulomatous inflammation was seens; this was composed of caseation necrosis, epithelioid cells and surrounding lymphocytes and plasma cells.
Craniotomy ; Epidural Abscess ; Epithelioid Cells ; Frontal Bone ; Headache ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Lymphocytes ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Necrosis ; Plasma Cells ; Pleural Effusion ; Rare Diseases ; Skull* ; Thorax ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Tuberculosis* ; Tuberculosis, Osteoarticular

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy(CAA) is a nonspecific disease entity that has been associated with a number of neuropathologic conditions, the most prominent being dementia and cerebral hemorrhage. It occurs more commonly than is generally appreciated, with implications that may be overlooked. As amyloid deposits are found in the vessels of the leptomeninges and cerebral cortex, the location and size of the hematoma, with cortical and subarachnoid extension, help to differentiate amyloid angiopathy from other causes of intracerebral hemorrhage in the elderly. It has, in addition, characteristic pathological features, and the existence of these, together with the occurance of nontraumatic normotensive spontaneous primary cerebral hemorrhage in the elderly, should indicate the existence of CAA. The authors report a case of cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related intracerebral hemorrhage.
Aged ; Amyloid* ; Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy ; Cerebral Cortex ; Cerebral Hemorrhage* ; Dementia ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Plaque, Amyloid

This study was conducted to develope and evaluate the reliability and the validity of a questionnaire in order to determine the applicability as a screening tool for estimating environmental exposure and health effects related to air pollution. The questionnaire was developed with adopting some items of others such as ISAAC or ATS-DLD. And then we performed test-retest to 89 middle school students and their mothers at interval of three months. Cohen's Kappa values, weighted Kappa values, Spearman's correlation coefficients, and Pearson's correlation coefficients for each item were computed as reliability coefficients. The validity coefficients and validity coefficient bounds were also obtained by simply using these reliability coefficients. As results, Kappa ranged broadly from 0.10 to 0.61 of the items 'diet', 0.52~0.79 of the environmental tobacco smoke, 0.39~0.44 of the functional categories of surrounding environment, and 0.54~0.63 of the using transportation systems; these items were regarded as confounding factors. For items related to health outcomes, Kappa ranged from -0.02 to 0.37 in the respiratory system of past medical history, and from 0.11 to 0.55 in the current health status. But Kappa of the others were over 0.60. In conclusion, if some items can be corrected or modified, the questionnaire developed in this study can be used as a tool for evaluating environmental exposure and health effects associated with air pollution.
Air Pollution* ; Environmental Exposure ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Mothers ; Surveys and Questionnaires* ; Respiratory System ; Smoke ; Tobacco ; Transportation

BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity is becoming more prevalent, associated with a variety of adverse consequences which leads to adulthood obesity. Although diagnosis is usually made by body mass index, there is neither a cutoff point for the percentage body fat nor abdominal circumference. The aim of this study was to identify each cutoff point for both measures. METHODS: The measurement of height, weight, abdominal circumference and percentage body fat was performed through manual assessment and bioelectrical impedance analysis for 4,242 subjects aged 11 in Gunpo City, South Korea. The cutoff point for body fat percentage and abdominal circumference is set to maximize the sum of sensitivity and specificity for detecting obesity and overweight using the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve. RESULTS: The mean percentage body fat was 13.6+/-6.9% for boys and 19.4+/-5.3% for girls. The mean abdominal circumference of boys was 68.0+/-9.1 cm, and that of girls was 64.3+/-7.7 cm. The cutoff point of percentage body fat for obesity was 21.8% in boys and 24.5% in girls. The prevalence of obesity was 15.2%, 16.7% for males and females, respectively. The abdominal circumference cutoff for obesity was 76.9 cm in boys and 70.7cm in girls. Based on that, the prevalence of obesity was 19.7% for boys and 20.0% for girls, which was higher than what was identified by body mass index, as in the case of body fat percentage. CONCLUSION: The cutoffs of body fat percentage and abdominal circumference in one city of Gyeonggi Province were lower than those suggested in the previous studies.
Adipose Tissue ; Aged ; Body Mass Index ; Electric Impedance ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Obesity ; Overweight ; Prevalence ; Republic of Korea ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity